Pastel Class

I'm taking a pastels class here at work taught by the talented Bill Cone. Here's one of my first studies done while waiting for my carpool partner. It's a very small study. 3X5 inches or so.

COMIC CON SKETCHBOOK ENTRIES

COMIC CON 2009

I almost missed this one. At the last minute I decided to cancel my table this year and just attend as a professional. Not realizing that I also canceled my ticket in. Luckily a friend had an extra pass, so nerdfest was a go again!

SEE THE PHOTOS!

POST-IT ANIMATION #3

So this is it! The thrilling conclusion to the Stick Figure Post It Animations. This is clearly done around the time of Nintendo and is the most advanced in terms of technique (camera moves and everything!). Although sadly, a Ninja Turtle does not make a cameo at the end. Hope you enjoyed these!

POST-IT ANIMATION #2

Here's the second POST-IT NOTE animation. This one is done a little later than the first. I'm guessing around 1989-1990 if the ending is any indication. The added sfx really brings out the chaos of the action. I had a blast putting this together. One more to come! Stay tuned!

CAUTION! This one contains some GRAPHIC VIOLENCE!

POST-IT ANIMATION #1

I went back home to my parents place in MN and came across some real gems. This is the first of 3 Post-It Note animations I had done back in the day. I thought it would be fun to scan them in and edit them into a Quicktime! Here's the first one!

UP ART

Pete Doctor and Ricky Nierva gave a little interview for the New York Times on some of the designs for "Up"

New York Times Interview

Also while you're following links. Wander over towards Lou Romano's blog. 

Lou Romano's Blog

He's got all kinds of goodies. Like these quick After Effects movies he made trying to breathe some more life into his designs for the film.

damn I love working at this company

AWESOME BEATLES XBO360 AD

This is one hell of a commercial. It's for a Beatles Rock Band game. Damn is this thing cool. Every once in a while you see something you wished you worked on. "Up" is one of them, this is another...

"UP" IS OUT!

Pixar unleashes it's tenth film Friday! I'm pretty damn excited to see the public's reaction. People are really gunna love it. It's hilarious, fun and surprisingly touching. So far the response has been super positive. As evidence by RottenTomatoes! Congrats to everyone that had a hand in it. It's truly a great film.

IT IS YOUR DESTINY

I went thru an old box in the attic and came across these gems. I was all about "Jedi" when I was a kid. And I've got the drawings to prove it. Who knew that I'd eventually draw Star Wars characters for a living.

I really like this one (notice the pre-special edition Sarlacc Pit)

If you look closely, you can see Han over the fire

My favorite part of this one are the witches I drew on the back. That's what the Empire needed to defeat the Rebels. A squadron of witches. Take that Admiral Ackbar!

LUCASFILM BEARD OFF!

So before I left Lucasfilm, I participated in a no holds barred Beard Off! It wasn't much of a contest since we didn't set any rules, but what we did do was take a picture everyday of our beard growth progression! Our good friend Justin Mettam put together this video of the results.

THE AESTHETIC OF SURPRISE

This is a cool little video of Ira Glass, host of "This American Life," giving a talk about stories and storytelling.

Ira Glass at Gel 2007 from Gel Conference on Vimeo.

ART OF STORYBOARDING

A friend at work found this great little 13 minute documentary about storyboarding hosted by Eric Goldberg. Worth checking out.

MY FIRST CLONE WARS EPISODE

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE FULL EPISODE

Tonight CARTOON NETWORK will be airing the first episode of the "CLONE WARS" that I worked on. It was a fun episode and the first time I worked with Giancarlo Volpe. One of their talented directors. It actually the season finale. Here's a PREVIEW

ALIEN SQUID

This thing is totally cool. A shell oil drilling site caught this creature on camera about two miles down. Looks like James Cameron already knew about it and we're just catching up...

UP TRAILER!

Got to see this trailer at work the other day. I can't wait for it! I've been trying to stay away from too much here at the studio so that I can be surprised. What I have seen looks great!

FIRST DAY AT PIXAR!!

Well, tomorrow is the big day. I start my new gig at Pixar. I'm getting pretty excited and a bit nervous too. But there's one thing I do know. As they're showing me around the studio and introducing people, this is what's going to be going on in my head...

I GOT A NEW JOB!!!!!

After years and years of trying and preparing, it finally happened. I got a job at PIXAR!! I can't tell you how long I've tried. Ever since the first Toy Story, I've set my sights on Pixar. It's been a long hard road. The college I went to didn't have an animation program so that forced me to learn everything on the job and at evening classes. I can't tell you how hard I've worked to get this.

 
I even have proof. Here's a letter I got nearly 10 years ago! It's dated June 29th 2001, but it was really 2000. I moved to LA at the end of 2000 and this was received at my Minnesota address. It was my first glimmer of hope. A letter of rejection, but also letter of hope. They liked my submission! Not enough to call me in for an interview, but enough to hold onto my portfolio to see if anything opened up that fit me! I never got so excited over a rejection letter. I've been holding onto it since then, and I plan on framing it up and taking it with me on my first day...

TO HANG UP AT MY DESK!!!!

NEW POWERPUFF GIRLS

If you can, check out a special 10th anniversary episode of the girls whooping ass on Monday, Jan. 19, at 8 p.m. (ET, PT) on Cartoon Network! Craig was working on this while I was still at CN and a lot of other talented people were a part of it (Leticia Lacy, Ben Balistreri, Shannon Tindle, Shane Prigmore, C. Raggio, and Chris Battle). Plus it was animated entirely in the US by the Fosters's flash crew.

ANIMATRIX and AEON FLUX

Here are the last sketches I have for that "Drawing From Film" class. This is further into the class, so you can see how he had us pushing the poses and incorporating different styles on the same subject/image. He was really pushing us to not just copy but re-interpret and discover something new.



I like to jot down great quotes people say and there's one on this page. John said during class, "There are so many wonderfully anorexic people in LA"

MMM...NIMH SUM...

More studies from the class at Lucasfilm. If you know your animation history, then you know these are from Bluth's "Secret of Nimh". My favorite Bluth film by far.

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!!

Here are some more studies from that class I took. I'm finally getting around to scanning them all in! Here's some from another Ridley classic, "Gladiator"!

This one was a left handed drawing